This album features original Egyptian dance compositions as well as traditional pieces with a modern touch, by Essam Rashad. Essam Rashad was born in Cari, Egypt. He learned music from his father early in hi life. In his twenties, he worked as a composer for the national Egyptian radio station. After his father’s death, he began to study violin and joined a small orchestra, recording a great number of songs by various Middle Eastern composers. Thus he gained a great wealth of knowledge and wide-ranging experience in different musical styles and techniques. Gradually he became highly regarded as a talented musician, whereupon he was appointed to join the Egyptian National Classical Orchestra as a specialist of the oud, his first instrument. In 1981, he came to England. He then began to teach music privately, while also looking for an opportunity to release his musical works. He worked on arrangements for Indian and Western music with his special skills. At present, he is completing work on original pieces of full orchestrated modern classical music.

The new Musical Explorers series from ARC Music makes available, often for the first time, a valuable range of historical films and audio recordings gathered from all over the world. The next release on this series is Music of Tibet, curated by Simon Broughton. Accompanying the album is Deben Bhattacharya’s film, Echoes from Tibet, which was shot in 1979 in Ladakh, Darjeeling and Dharamsala. This is where many Tibetan exiles and the Dalai Lama (who appears in the film) are based. The music on the accompanying album was recorded in 1975 and 1979 in the refugee communities of Ladakh, Himalchal Pradesh, Sikkim and Darjeeling, and also in Sarnath, close to Varansi where The Buddha gave his first sermon. The music on the album was recorded by Deben Bhattacharya on his Nagra in 1975 and 1979. “For the new Musical Explorers series by the British label, the world music expert Simon Broughton has raised a real treasure.”

The nineteenth-century witnessed an almost insatiable demand for arrangements and transcriptions to be played on domestic pianos. Brahms himself wrote such works under the names GW Marks and Karl Wurth but friends and colleagues also contributed. The violinist, pianist and conductor Paul Klengel, brother of the eminent cellist Julius (whose three Concertinos for Cello and Orchestra can be heard this month on Naxos 8.573793), made solo piano versions of the Horn Trio and the Clarinet Quintet, transcribing with remarkable fidelity and sensitivity Brahms’ myriad expressive and technical demands. Born in Wales, Christopher Williams is a music graduate of Cardiff University and now leads a busy and varied professional life as a pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and arranger. He is currently assistant director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales and is a pianist for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he has performed at the BBC Proms and recorded for the Chandos and Hyperion labels.

"A simply outstanding CD." - The Whole Note

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s most in-demand classical performers. Beloved by audiences around the world, with a reputation for groundbreaking recital programs and important commissions, Fantasia marks her 35th studio album and is one of her most important projects to date. Meyers has been Billboard’s Top Selling Classical Instrumentalist of the year and has had numerous albums reach the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart. Her latest album captures the rare combination of incredible virtuosity and poetic color with iconic works by Ravel, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s last major work, written for Meyers, and Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1. The title track, Fantasia is legendary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s premiere posthumous recording and last major work for violin and orchestra. Ms. Meyers traveled to Finland and worked with the composer on it shortly before he died. Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1, dedicated to Polish virtuoso violinist, Paul Kochanski, is a dazzling display of exotic melodies, and Ravel’s iconic Tzigane is a virtuoso showpiece that conjures Hungarian gypsy music, and premiered almost a century ago.



REVIEW:

Meyers also seduces the senses in Ravel’s Tzigane, emphasising the magical essence of its blazing inspiration without the slightest whiff of empty, showpiece bravado. Yet the star item here is Rautavaara’s Fantasia (2015), one of his last works and composed especially for Meyers, who soars aloft with its tender cantabile, shaping its shimmering melodic lines with a profound sensitivity that exerts irresistible pressure on the tear ducts.

– The Strad

The specialist early-music ensemble Da Camera marks the 250th anniversary of Telemann’s death with this unique recording of original trio sonatas involving recorder and viol. These are among the greatest pieces Telemann ever composed. As he wrote in 1740: ‘how could I possibly remember everything I composed for strings and winds? I particularly devoted myself to the composing of trios… People even flattered me as having done my best work here.’ The musicians of Da Camera heartily agree. The ingenuity and variety of music, structures, and instrumental ensemble, combined with fascinating notes by the recorder player Emma Murphy, make this album a must-have for everyone, from Telemann’s many enthusiasts to those curious about early music.

Louis Lortie’s Chopin series is achieving landmark status, as confirmed by the increasingly enthusiastic reviews of progressive volumes. This fifth one sumptuously highlights the Polish influences in Chopin’s music, offering gems from among the mazurkas and polonaises. Relatively brief in duration and simple in structure, the mazurkas reveal other aspect of Chopin’s music: quirky melodies, strangely chromatic harmonies, oddly accented rhythms, irregular phrase lengths, and wildly contrasting keyboard textures. They represent a fascinating part of Chopin’s output, for audiences and pianists alike. The vigour of the polonaises featured here, including the first two to be published, confirms Chopin as a radical, yet idiomatic transformer of the genre. The Allegro de concert, which Chopin was said to have kept for his projected return to ‘a free Warsaw’, is another link to his beloved country.

Expanded Edition: This album contains new tracks that were not available on the original, limited release version, released on-demand in 2015

The essence of The King’s Singers has always been live performance. On Christmas Presence, the beloved acapella group gives the listener the experience of being at a live King’s Singers concert in one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, from the comfort of their own home. The program for this special holiday concert takes the listener through various ages and styles of music, from the Renaissance to the present day. A sublime accompaniment to the holiday season, the King's Singers open with sacred music, move through modern carols, and end with festive musical favorites.

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REVIEWS:

This live performance catches The King’s Singers in particularly fresh, spontaneous fettle, as their 50th anniversary approaches.

– BBC Music Magazine

Recorded live at King’s College, Cambridge in 2015, the King’s Singers are as alluring as ever. All is given with that familiar, deliciously fragile refinement.

– The Sunday Times (UK)

Bob Chilcott’s compositions are beloved with choral societies around the world, and this album represents the fruits of his recent collaborations with the US choir Choralis and their conductor Gretchen Kuhrmann. Featuring festive works for solo choir as well as choir and brass ensemble, at the centre of the programme is 'Wenceslas', inspired by the legend of the Bohemian King who braved the winter weather with his Page to save the life of a poor peasant, and incorporating the melody of the famous carol into each of its 8 movements. The release also includes the premiere recordings of Chilcott’s 'Gloria', which was premiered by the choir to great critical acclaim in 2015.

London Early Opera continue their programme themed around a typical evening’s entertainment at the 17th & 18th century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with a second collection of works by George Frideric Handel and contemporary composers of the day (John Stanley, Thomas Gladwin, John Lampe and Johann Adolph Hasse). Featuring performances by soloists Claire Bessant, Mary Bevan, Benjamin Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Charles MacDougale, Nicky Spence and Greg Tassell, the programme evokes the carnival of music and entertainments that amused visitors in these London gardens for nearly 200 years. The booklet notes feature images and expert commentaries on the Vauxhall Gardens by author David E. Coke and as well as conductor and musicologist Bridget Cunningham.

An absolute highlight of Salzburg's Mozart Week with ''highest art of sound and riding'': the French equine artist and theatrical genius Bartabas presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requime. Horses and riders from the formidable Academie Equestre de Versailles join forces with the Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski, the Salzburger Bachchor and ''an excellent quartet of soloists'', namely Genia Kuhmeier, Elisabeth Kulman, Julien Behr and Charles Dekeyser, to place the Requiem into a new theatrical context. Restoring the Felsenreitschule's original purpose - a riding school - and at the same time including its impressive architecture of arcades into the musical dramaturgy, the production is a breathtaking synthesis of the arts. By meticulously refining the skillfully regulated interactions between humans, animals, and music. Bartabas and his horsemen have created a production which is much more than a great show riding choreography: it's a moving exploration of the interconnectedness of existence. A piece of art with an ''exceptional power of attraction'', ''a requime for all senses''.

Macedonian bellydance music has a distinct ''Balkan'' flavour with its typical instrumentation blended with contemporary instruments - modern, exciting, quirky, and very ''bellydanceable''!

This new release features fifteen rousing and very danceable Cuban songs in the best tradition of ‘Buena Vista’ with some of the old guard as well as the younger generation of ‘post Buena Vista’ Cuba. Artists include Luis Frank, Soneros de Verdad, Mayito Rivera, Rudy Calzado, Cesar Pedroso, and more. The Buena Vista Social Club was a members’ only club in Havana, Cuba that operated until the 1940s. The club was so widely known, that it inspired a 1990s band, a popular album, a late-nineties film, and a brand name. The spirit of the club is evident in this release as well. These songs have been handpicked and remastered by celebrated sound engineer Diz Heller.

When Kit Armstrong was only 14 , he overcame his mentor Alfred Brendel's reluctance to take on pupils. Brendel said ''He played so beautifully that I thought to myself, 'I have to make tiem for him.' It was a performance that really led you from the first to the last note.'' Soon Armstrong was winning international prizes both as pianists and as composer and was appearing as soloist at some of the world's foremost venues. At the Concertgebouw, Armstrong mesmerized his audience with Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations - preceded by earlier polyphonic variation masterpieces by William Byrd, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and John Bull. ''Enlightening and exhilarating'' (Revierpassagen). ''Armstrong's phenomenal recital was so exceptional that every attempt to describe it falls short'' (NRC).

Calypso is a form of folk music and dance from the Caribbean. Historically, Calypso can be traced back to the arrival of African slaves in the Caribbean islands in the seventeenth century. It has its roots on the island of Trinidad. The words of calypso songs are witty and humorous, usually involving social or political commentary in satirical form. The lyrics are characterized by arbitrary shifts in the accentuation of everyday English words. The infectious Calypso music is set in duple meter. It is a vital component of any carnival celebration in the Caribbean, and there are annual calypso competitions which are themselves a premier aspect of the carnivals. Born in Africa in 1968, King Selewa got into music through Jamaican 70s calypso, ska, rock-steady and early reggae music which he and his elder brother, Lord Skalipsoul, then performed live all over Europe in 1995. King Selewa and Chico, his guitar player, soon formed their own band of experienced musicians- their “Calypsonians,” in order to go deeper into the roots of Caribbean music, that is to say, Calypso. As Lord Invader said: “Calypso is folklore of Trinidad, a style of poetry recounting current events in song.”

Ian Watson and Susanna Ogata's acclaimed series on Coro Connections continues with the third album in their exploration of Beethoven's Sonatas for fortepiano and violin. Written at a time when the composer was struggling to accept his growing deafness, the three sonatas on this volume were published together in 1803 as his Opus 30 and provide a remarkable trilogy - a collection of incredible variety and sophistication. The wide compositional range of this set demonstrates Beethoven's prowess in creating bucolic, even humorous moments, contrasted with deep intensity, pathos and the truly sublime. Susanna Ogata has been praised for her ''totally convincing, spontaneous and free-flowing playing'' (The Berkshire Review) and is a tenured member of the Handel and Haydn Society where she was appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the orchestra in 2014. Ian Watson has been described by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as ''a conductor of formidable ability'', and by The Times in London as a keyboard performer with ''virtuosic panache and brilliantly articulated playing'' and ''a world-class soloist.'' He was appointed Associate Conductor of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society in 2016.

In 2016 the Witold Lutoslawski Chamber Philharmonic in Lomza organized the educational campaign “Colors of Music” for the second time. It has been realized under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The campaign is interdisciplinary; as it combines visual arts and music of representatives of various periods. By developing musical-plastic imagination, the organizers wanted to make young receivers of art sensitive to its multidimensionality. The artists of the Philharmonic unraveled the mystery of the musical world, performing concerts enriched with a lecture, presentation of musical instruments, and recordings. An art competition addressed to the oldest kindergarten groups and pupils up to 11 years of age, educational centers in Lomza and its surroundings concluded those activities. The current album constitutes an integral element in the campaign Colors of Music. Its founders and organizers assume that appropriately presented classical music is a great tool for developing imagination, creativity, and sensitivity. The campaign pursues a continual objective of promoting culture in its universal character, particularly among young listeners, by means of experiencing music with many senses, as well as by the influence of music on aesthetic and emotional tones. This release in the campaign presents music for two flutes, performed by flutists Lukasz Dlugosz and Agata Kielar-Dlugosz.

The pieces recorded in this release stem from an all-pervading performance practice that deeply marked out the musical taste of the nineteenth century: that of “transcription”. This practice enabled a widespread dissemination of the most popular opera passages, well beyond the official circuits of the great theatres, and above all into the sphere of holy rites. Arias, cavatinas, cabalettas and symphonies were plentiful everywhere: in many cases they were transcriptions of pieces by well-known composers (it was sufficient to give them a “liturgical” title); more often they were homely elaborations. Almost all these pieces are being performed here for the first time in the modern age; the composers are practically unknown; in their music, famous opera themes are freely mixed with fanciful variations on those themes. The purpose was to reproduce this atmosphere, at once theatrical and sacred, in its entirety, by means of period instruments: a wonderful nineteenth-century organ and a series of precious original brass instruments. In fact Marco Arlotti is sitting the Adeodato Bossi Urbani 1874 organ, and Michele Santi, a specialist in nineteenth-century trumpets, is playing seven different period instruments delivering the best and most characteristic sound to each track.

After their very successful album release, Zukva, on ARC Music in January 2016, Divanhana are back with a live album featuring their sold-out show in their homeland, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Divanhana performs traditional music in new arrangements created with influences from jazz, pop and twentieth century classical music. Divanhana’s intention is to present the urban traditional music, not only from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but from the whole Balkan region, with a particular accent on Sevdalinka. “Supple sevdah from young, gifted Sarajevans… Divanhana are a young band but a very confident one… They can play sevdah with the right mix of dynamic pace and epic melancholy…” (Songlines UK) “…Divanhana’s sound is simultaneously rooted in the tradition and outward looking, their music dancing with breathtaking inventiveness. By turns romantic and upbeat, the sevdah music of Bosnia and Herzegovina is beautifully showcased from these hugely talented and inventive musicians.” (R2, UK)

Lutz Cassel came in touch with the culture of his ancestors for the first time in the early 1960s. This was during song contests at the Castle “Waldeck” in Germany. Although he had no idea of his background (he had been raised in the Christian faith) the music touched him deeply and from this time onwards he began to collect everything connected with Jewish culture and especially with Jewish music and to adapt it for his performances in folk clubs. Step by step he developed a repertoire of songs and also the idea to describe the history of the Jewish people and its music and culture. By and by Lutz started to season his performances with jokes, anecdotes and stories from the thousands of years of history of this people, which consists of more than just the Bible, the Roman Empire and the Holocaust. Lutz was often dissatisfied with the fact that singers of Yiddish songs in Germany generally only described the modern history of the Jews. The origins of the songs were not explained and therefore only a few people understood their meaning. His successes in many small cabarets encouraged him to combine history, stories and music. He did this not in the then popular way of many singer/songwriters, with a moralizing undertone, but with humor and irony- the typical self-irony of Jewish humor. This release is a live recording of a concert which took place in the Hamburg Music Hall for the Hanukkah Celebration of 1986.

This new release is a beautiful album of traditional music from Eastern Polynesia that was taken from David Fanshawe's monumental Pacific Collection. The Pacific Collection was recorded over the course of fourteen years (1978-88), and focuses on the rich variety of authentic himene (hymns) indigenous to Tahiti, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands and others. David Fanshawe was a composer, ethnic sound recordist, guest speaker, photographer, TV personality, and a Churchill Fellow. He was born in 1942 in Devon, England and was educated at St. George's Choir School and Stowe, after which he joined a documentary film company. In 1965 he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. His ambition to record indigenous folk music began in the Middle East in 1966, and was intensified on subsequent journeys through North and East Africa (1969-75) resulting in his unique and highly original blend of music and travel. His work has been the subject of BBC TV documentaries including African Sanctus, Arabian Fantasy, Musical Mariner, and Tropical Beat.

Much has been said and written about the origins and first appearances of the Gypsies. Their first documented existence in Europe dates back to the early fifteenth century and most scholars agree that they originally came from Northern India. This is based on the resemblance of their Romany language to certain languages in Northern India. Apparently, the Gypsies migrated into Persia in the 11th century and further into South East Europe around the beginning of the 14th century and from there into Western Europe. Today, Gypsies live all over the world, including North and South America and even Australia. As many Gypsies worked as musicians or entertainers, they had a considerable impact on the music of the countries in which they lived- their own particular musical style often combined with the folk music of a particular country, thus preserving the traditions over centuries. The so-called Gypsy repertoire can be described as a blend of Russian, Hungarian and Romanian influences but on the other hand the Roma have contributed their own style to many areas of music and influenced other artists in their music, such as Bizet, Brahms and Dvorak, to name but a few. In this compilation, a variety of Gypsy music has been included, from purely traditional to modern, including soloists who excel with their instruments, small Gypsy ensembles, large Gypsy brass bands, some of the greatest Gypsy singers and composers as well as travelling Egyptian Gypsies, recorded on location.

Before moving into the Elbphilharmonie, chief conductor Thomas Hengelbrock and his NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester performed a “Brahms Marathon” with all four symphonies of the Hamburg-born composer in the historic Laeiszhalle. Brahms’ music has always played an important role in the history of the orchestra, whose defining interpretations of the symphonies by Brahms and Bruckner have become the ensemble’s artistic hallmark. The orchestra, founded in 1945, was led by outstanding conductors such as Günter Wand, Christoph Eschenbach and Christoph von Dohnanyi. Since 2011, chief conductor Thomas Hengelbrock is in charge of continuing the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester’s history. In the bonus program ''Discovering Brahms'', Thomas Hengelbrock offers interesting background information on all four symphonies. “The evening was more than worth it” (Hamburger Abendblatt).

When the revered writer Alessandro Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi was unable to bring himself to attend the funeral. Instead he composed his monumental Messa da Requiem in Manzoni’s memory and conducted its first performance on the first anniversary of the writer’s death. In addition to its profound spirituality, the work also brings together all the finest qualities familiar from Verdi’s operas, qualities that include endless melodic lines and powerful musico-dramatic effects. The present performance was recorded in Los Angeles’s legendary Hollywood Bowl in August 2013 and brought together three superstars from the world of music: the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the tenor Vittorio Grigolo and the bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, all of them at the top of their form. “It was an important and exceptional evening … That experience involved a radical and wondrous rethinking of the Requiem on Dudamel‘s part.” (Los Angeles Times)

This is a double-anniversary release, offering a rare collection of lively works to celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as well as the eightieth birthday of its principal conductor, Neeme Järvi. Cheerful marches and dances here trace the career of Johann Strauss II as it manifested itself in his much acclaimed seasons in St Petersburg, at the ‘Russian summer’ concerts in the Vauxhall pavilion in Pavlovsk, where he appeared for eleven seasons (1856 – 65 and 1869), ten of them consecutively. It is an unmissable start to a year-long celebration for Neeme Jarvi that will include concerts, promotions, and subsequent album releases.